Embodiments of the invention relate generally to thermal management systems and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method for cooling high power-density, heat-producing devices using synthetic jet embedded heat sinks.
Cooling of heat-producing devices is a concern in many different technologies. Particularly in microprocessors, the rise in heat dissipation levels associated with increasingly powerful processing system has resulted in the need for new cooling solutions beyond conventional thermal management techniques. This has led to an increased demand for advanced and robust cooling solutions with severe volume constraints. In the microelectronics industry, for example, advances in technology have brought about an increase in transistor density and faster electronic chips. As electronic packages increase in speed and capability, the heat flux that must be dissipated to maintain reasonable chip temperatures has also risen.
One conventional means for dissipating heat is by way of a heat sink, which can be placed on an electronic package to draw heat away therefrom. While air-cooling under natural convection conditions by way of a heat sink is the simplest possible way to cool a high heat flux device, high power dissipation requirements often necessitate the use of fans. Typically, these fans are placed either directly on the heat sink or are positioned to drive airflow through the heat sink by way of a duct in the heat sink. While fans have the capacity to move a substantial volume of air, they are noisy, unreliable, and generally very inefficient in terms of the heat removed for a given electrical input power.
Arrays of air-jets have also been used in cooling applications as an alternative to fans. However, conventional air-jets are not very useful for consumer products, due to requirements of pressure supplies and conduits for directing the air to the heat sink. This makes design of the cooling system too complex and the cost of the cooling system too high for consumer product applications.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method for cooling heat-producing devices in an efficient manner. There is a further need for such a system to have minimal space requirements and a simplified, cost-effective design.